Age of Discovery

===Dutch Australia and New Zealand===
[[File:Tasmanroutes.PNG|thumb|upright=1.35|The route of [[Abel Tasman]]'s 1642 and 1644 voyages in [[New Holland (Australia)]] in the service of the VOC ([[Dutch East India Company]])]]

''[[Terra Australis|Terra Australis Ignota]]'' (Latin, "the unknown land of the south") was a hypothetical continent appearing on European maps from the 15th to the 18th centuries, with roots in a notion introduced by [[Aristotle]]. It was depicted on the mid-16th-century [[Dieppe maps]], where its coastline appeared just south of the islands of the East Indies; it was often elaborately charted, with a wealth of fictitious detail. The discoveries reduced the area where the continent could be found. Many cartographers held to Aristotle's opinion, like [[Gerardus Mercator]] (1569) and [[Alexander Dalrymple]] even so late as 1767<ref>[[#Wilford 1982|Wilford 1982]], p. 139.</ref> argued for its existence, with such arguments as that there should be a large landmass in the Southern Hemisphere as a counterweight to the known landmasses in the Northern Hemisphere. As new lands were discovered, they were often assumed to be parts of this hypothetical continent.

[[Juan Fernández (explorer)|Juan Fernández]], sailing from Chile in 1576, claimed he had discovered the Southern Continent.<ref>[[#Medina 1918|Medina 1918]], pp. 136–246.</ref> [[Luís Vaz de Torres|Luis Váez de Torres]], a [[Galicia (Spain)|Galician]] navigator working for the Spanish Crown, proved the existence of a passage south of New Guinea, now known as [[Torres Strait]]. [[Pedro Fernandes de Queirós]], a Portuguese navigator sailing for the Spanish Crown, saw a large island south of New Guinea in 1606, which he named La Australia del [[Espiritu Santo]]. He represented this to the King of Spain as the Terra Australis incognita. In fact, it was not Australia but an island in present-day [[Vanuatu]].
[[File:Duyfken replica, Swan River.jpg|thumb|left|''[[Duyfken]]'' replica, Swan River, Australia]]
[[Dutch Republic|Dutch]] navigator and colonial governor, [[Willem Janszoon]] sailed from the Netherlands for the East Indies for the third time on December 18, 1603, as captain of the ''[[Duyfken]]'' (or ''Duijfken'', meaning "Little Dove"), one of twelve ships of the great fleet of [[Steven van der Hagen]].<ref>[[#Mutch 1942|Mutch 1942]], p. 17.</ref> Once in the Indies, Janszoon was sent to search for other outlets of trade, particularly in "the great land of Nova Guinea and other East and Southlands." On November 18, 1605, the ''Duyfken'' sailed from [[Bantam (city)|Bantam]] to the coast of western [[New Guinea]]. Janszoon then crossed the eastern end of the [[Arafura Sea]], without seeing the [[Torres Strait]], into the [[Gulf of Carpentaria]]. On February 26, 1606, he made landfall at the [[Pennefather River]] on the western shore of [[Cape York Peninsula|Cape York]] in Queensland, near the modern town of [[Weipa, Queensland|Weipa]]. This is the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent. Janszoon proceeded to chart some {{convert|320|km|0|abbr=off}} of the coastline, which he thought was a southerly extension of New Guinea. In 1615, [[Jacob Le Maire|Jacob le Maire]] and [[Willem Schouten]]'s rounding of Cape Horn proved that [[Tierra del Fuego]] was a relatively small island.

From 1642 to 1644, [[Abel Tasman]], also a Dutch explorer and merchant in the service of the VOC, circumnavigated [[New Holland (Australia)|New Holland]] proving that Australia was not part of the mythical southern continent. He was the first known European expedition to reach the islands of [[Van Diemen's Land]] (now [[Tasmania]]) and [[New Zealand]] and to sight the [[Fiji]] islands, which he did in 1643. Tasman, his navigator Visscher, and his merchant Gilsemans also mapped substantial portions of Australia, New Zealand, and the [[Pacific Islands]].